


An )(onest Mist8ke

by certainlyAmbiguous



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Drunk Texting, F/F, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Pesterlog, Unrequited Crush, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-07 11:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certainlyAmbiguous/pseuds/certainlyAmbiguous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A commiseration party. A raunchy photograph. An honest mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Murky )(appenings.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [childishGambino](https://archiveofourown.org/users/childishGambino/gifts).



To say that Feferi and Kanaya were friends would not be a long shot at all. They were friends, and good friends at that-- the sort of friends that helped one another out and entertained one another via chat in the bright hours while most of the rest of the people they knew were surrounded by sopor. They even offered each other advice from time to time about general things and played games together online sometimes. You know, friends! Buddies. Pals. So why was it that no matter how many little messages Feferi sent Kanaya, lines of jade never appeared on the screen?  
  
Feferi had broken it off with Eridan relatively recently, and had at the time felt like having someone to glub at about it would help her feel less sad about the situation as a whole. Initially, she’d turned to Vriska because, well… they were friends too, and Vriska had a leg up on Kanaya in this instance because she’d gone through a breakup with the same troll, albeit in another quadrant. They’d both had to handle him and his dramatics upon the ends of the relationships, so they could commiserate.  
  
Vriska had actually insisted that Feferi come visit her for a kind of cheer-up celebration, and they’d laughed a lot and drank strong tea and stronger other things while talking about him and elbowing each other in the ribs during video games. They rough housed and ate practically all the snacks in the hive. Bits of the day had been splotchy, but she could remember getting a face full of one of Vriska’s big, spidery hands at some point. That easily explained why her makeup was smeared the way it was once she’d woken up to stumble hiveward the next morning. Not-- not in a pale way, they’d just been batting at each other while playing with one of Vriska’s game grubs!  
  
It wasn’t as if Feferi didn’t have a life and responsibilities of her own to attend to. Conscription wasn’t terribly far off-- in fact, that had been what had finally spurred her cut Eridan loose. Her reasoning was that if she didn’t have to worry about him near constantly, she could focus on more important things. Her plate was veritably full, but she liked and wanted to keep in touch with most of her friends. A good deal of them were intelligent or useful in other capacities, which made them valuable as much as friends as allies for the trek into adulthood they were about to make. It was just common sense that if one of them abruptly stopped speaking to her, she’d want to know why!  
  
That and Feferi could not at all handle being ignored.  
  
Messaging Vriska about it was probably the way to go. She and Kanaya saw each other all the time, right? Feferi stopped floating around thinking about all of this on her own and pulled out her palmhusk.  
  
cuttlefishCuller [CC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]  
  
CC: Vriska!  
CC: )(ave you glubbed wit)( Kanaya recently?  
AG: What?  
CC: )(AV-E YOU GLUBB-ED WIT)( KANAYA R-EC-ENTLY?  
AG: No Peixies, I can READ just fine. I just thought you’d 8e messaging to say you sent over the c8gars you owe me for 8r8king the table in my respite8lock.  
CC: Cigars? 38?  
AG: Caegars.  
CC: O)(. W)(o even cares about your stupid table? Your w)(ole )(ive is going to be demolished soon!  
AG: Your whole face is going to 8e demolished soon if you don’t get me a new table!!!!!!!!  
CC: Wow, I GU-ESS I can have one delivered if you’re going to BLUBB-ER about it all night.  
AG: Whatever! I just have a lot of irons in the fire, I’m sure you understand. I don’t need something like that 8ugging me.  
CC: I DON’T N-E-ED 8LUBB-ERING WIGGL-ERS LIKE YOU BUGGING M-E!  
CC: 38P  
AG: If anyone’s a 8lu88ering wiggler, it’s you! If I remem8er correctly, you were the one all “Glu8 so8 glu8 8oo hoo I’m not with the troll I don’t want to 8e with anymore anyway!”  
CC: No, s)(ut up, t)(at’s not even w)(at I came )(ere to talk about!  
CC: Kanaya )(asn’t been answering messages from me on Trollian! I was wondering if s)(e’s been talking to you?  
AG: As previously mentioned I have kind of a lot going on in my life, so I don’t talk to Kanaya eeeeeeeevery night.  
AG: That would imply that I was fucking up just nonstop, which I’m not. Right?  
CC: Glub.  
AG: Right.  
CC: You could )(ave just said no in the first place!  
  
cuttlefishCuller [CC] ceased trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]  
  
Feferi closed the tab with a whoosh of water through her gills that was functionally a sigh. Vriska was obviously being ignored by Kanaya as well.  



	2. A Good Moirail Wouldnt Ignore Her Quadrantmate

Oh, yes she would. If she had one. Not only would she, but that was in fact what she was currently doing. Mostly. Talking to Vriska right now would be way too difficult for Kanaya, and she just wasn’t ready. She was agitated and unhappy, not that this was anything new. The feelings were old hat, but the reason for them was definitely not.  
Kanaya, strictly in order to torture herself, decaptchalogued her palmhusk for the umpteenth time to examine the picture message she’d gotten, and her pallid skin flushed with jade. Nope. She quickly hit the button on the side to darken the screen and captchaloged her device again.  
  
It was just. Confusing. It was confusing, and it made her angry, but the more frequently she looked at the picture the more she grew to appreciate... it…? There were just. A lot of feelings to address. The kind of stuff you talk to your moirail about. An irate sigh slithered out from between Kanaya’s painted lips while she continued watering and attending to her topiary.  
  
Maybe she should talk to Eridan, Kanaya considered. They’d spoken quite a bit after Feferi had broken up with him, and he obviously had conciliatory feelings for her. Would that be gross, to use him for a feelings jam when she wasn’t sure she felt that way about him, or even what the state of her moirallegiance with Vriska was? Kanaya started up her chainsaw to trim some branches as her the skirts of her colorful dress fluttered in the breeze as she thought. It was probably best to push these thoughts out of her head for the moment. The sun was rising soon, and she felt the light would do her good.  
  
It really did. The almost uncomfortable warmth of the sun on her skin helped her focus, and she got so lost in rounding the shape of the bush she was working on just so that she startled when she heard her insides protesting their emptiness. After quickly finishing up her yardwork, Kanaya retreated inside to eat a quick supper. Food didn’t taste quite the same since the accident that caused her to metamorphose into a rainbow drinker, and she knew that it wasn’t going to keep her going for long. Though her stomach was no longer empty once she’d finished her grubloaf, she still didn’t feel nearly her best.  
  
Normally, she would have crossed the desert to track down a troll she could sink her teeth into, or glowed her dimmed glow at Vriska in the hopes that she would notice and offer up a measure of blue, but… Kanaya had been so wrapped up in disentangling her feelings on her own that she’d been unintentionally starving herself for blood. It only made figuring out things rougher in the long run, and it was ultimately because of this that she caved and send a message to Vriska, who had only been sending greetings and vague complaints about how wrecked her hive was in the wake of her two troll party with Feferi.  
  
She didn’t even have to be the first to say anything, as text was waiting for her when she started up the screen on her cuttlefish decorated lunchtop… which she abruptly found that she resented owning.  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]  
  
AG: Hey, what’s your deal?  
AG: You haven’t said a thing to me for a while. I’m almost starting to miss your meddling!  
AG: Normally I wouldn’t care, but Peixes says you’re not talking to her either.  
GA: Really  
AG: There you are! Yeah, she said you weren’t talking to anyone so I was thinking a8out coming over to make sure you weren’t dead or something.  
GA: Is That All You Have To Say  
AG: About what? I said I almost missed your meddling, didn’t I? It’s not like you’ve been gone for months!  
GA: Why Are You Acting Like Nothing Has Happened Is This Some Kind Of Game To You  
AG: Woah! W8 a min8, slow down.  
AG: Did I miss something?  
GA: I Dont Know Vriska  
GA: Did You  
AG: Why are you coming 8t me like I’m some sort of crimin8l?  
GA: Theres A Vague Chance It Could Have Something To Do With The Photo You Sent Me  
GA: If You Knew How I Felt About You And Didnt Have Reciprocal Feelings You Could Easily Have Been Less Of An Asshole About It  
AG: I don’t kn8w anything a8out any pict8re!!!!!!!!  
GA: I Have It Right Here And I Dont Understand Why You Keep Playing Coy  
grimAuxiliatrix [GA] sent arachnidsGrip [AG] file "SUC KIT LOOOOOOOSER.png"  
AG: ........  
AG: I don’t remem8er sending this.  
GA: And Yet It Appears That I Have It Funny That  
AG: It’s not what it looks like!!!!!!!!


	3. It’s exaaaaaaaactly what it looks like.

No! It’s not!!!!!!!!  
  
Seeing the picture brought the memory flooding back as easily, and Vriska facepalmed with both hands hard enough that it smooshed her glasses against her face and jolted her nose a little before she dragged the pads of her fingers down her cheeks. She remembered not only taking that photo, but suggesting it AND personally sending it off.  
  
They’d emptied little tea bag sized packets of edible sopor into batches of chilled fruit juice and drank kind of a lot of it while they hung out. Though they’d been having a lot of fun complaining about the movie they’d watched and playing games Feferi had actually begun to cry at some point during the day.  
  
She’d bawled about Eridan, and how she really didn’t feel like she had done the right thing since he was probably more dangerous in his grief than he would have been if he’d never met her, and… Vriska had felt bad for her. Before Vriska knew it, Feferi’s words had become venomous, and at first Vriska had agreed and encouraged her, but her tears hadn’t stopped. Her tears hadn’t stopped, and her fins were flared like she meant to actually attack someone.  
  
Vriska was the only one around, and was maybe a tiny bit freaked out by her sea dwelling friend’s display. She’d ended up patting Feferi hesitantly on the back and trying to tamp the anger back down when a thought on how occurred to her. It was here that she made the mistake of suggesting that they send him a photograph. You know, something to prove how far Feferi had moved on, since he'd see it and feel like SUCH an asshole.  
  
This was how the photo was produced. With a laughing suggestion and the light touch of fingers to a round cheek, warmed with anger. Feferi’s fins were drooping at half mast after the photo taking was done, but she was even back to laughing, if it was maybe kind of breathy. They’d given the best of the photos (the one with Vriska’s lips pressed to the corner of Feferi’s mouth while her hand looked to be in the middle of a firm pap at the space where the fuchsiablood's freckled face became fin) an appropriately hilarious name before shooting it off.  
  
...to the wrong contact, apparently.  
  
AG: It’s not what it looks like!!!!!!!!  
GA: It Looks Like Youre Kissing Feferi  
AG: It was just a fakey f8lse fake ruse to make Eridan feel 8ad for 8eing such a failure of a moir8il and losing us as quadrantm8s!  
AG: Why would you care a8out me kissing her, anyway?  
GA: Im Not The One Being Questioned Here You Sent Me A Photograph Of You With Your Hand On Some Other Trolls Face  
AG: It’s not “Some Other Troll” it’s Feferi!  
GA: Do You Really Thing The Distinction Means That Much To Me  
AG: Yes.  
AG: No????????  
AG: K8naya????????  
GA: Im Still Here  
AG: It was idiotic of me, I know! You don’t have to try to guilt trip me. I get it, I’m idiot girl, 8ut it's not like that!  
AG: Actually, you and me should get together and hang out anyway, right? My CDDC is looking more functional than ever, you know. It’s looking soooooooo functional. You should definitely know that I’m thinking a8out killing someone with it.  
AG: Pro8a8ly everyone. All the trolls! All of them.  
AG: 8ecause I’m so dangerous.  
AG: You don’t have to answer.  
AG: Either way, you should come over. We can talk a8out this silly misunderstanding in person and we can get you a pint or whatever.  
AG: That sounds good, right?  
AG: You can come over any time after sunset, ok?  
AG: Ok. <>  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling grimAuxiliatrix [GA]

Not that Kanaya had actually been responding, but Vriska didn’t give her the chance once she’d requested that Kanaya come over. She pressed her forehead against her desk while her gastric sack clenched up unpleasantly. She didn't have a lot of friends left who willingly put up with all her bullshit, and the thought that she might lose Kanaya was terrifying.


	4. )(ere, fis)(y fis)(y...

Feferi was out in the open sea when her palmhusk started singing its happy little alert tones to tell her about the messages she was receiving. It scared away a school of fish she'd been stalking, and they scattered. She cursed aloud with the air in her lungs, which came out as a glub and sent bubbles racing for the surface. She'd wanted to catch one of the silvery things for a quick pre-bedtime snack! Not one to give up on a task she'd set out for herself, Feferi sent her 2x3dent streaking through the water in the blink of an inner eyelid (which we all know is much faster than the blink of an outer one). With the quick action, she managed to impale TWO fish on one tine! As she swam to reclaim her trident and the treats wigging on the end of it, hair billowing out behind her like a living creature of the deep all its own, she was reminded that she wanted to speak to a troll about a ship. First things first, though. Once she'd fetched her weapon and settled down under an outcropping of rock, she sank her teeth into scale and flesh and bone and read.  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]  
  
AG: Just so you know, I have spoken to Kanaya lately, dou8tyfins.  
AG: I think she’s mad at me. ::::(  
AG: Since I’m such a 8ig idiot jerk.  
CC: W)(y would s)(e be mad at you for being a jerk?  
CC: You’re always like t)(at.  
CC: W)(OOS)(! IN YOUR FAC-E!  
CC: )(oo )(oo )(oo!  
CC: You swam rig)(t into the glass wit)( t)(at one! 3XD  
  
Feferi made a mental note as she chewed to copy and paste that to Sollux for a textual high five.  
  
AG: Ugh! Can you 8e serious for like 8 seconds????????  
AG: That picture I was supposed to send to Eridan went to Kanaya inste8d and now I’m pretty sure she’s p8ssed!  
CC: First of all clam down, it was a JOK-E. And second, w)(at picture are you even glubbing about?  
arachnidsGrip [AG] sent cuttlefishCuller [CC] file "SUC KIT LOOOOOOOSER.png"  
  
Was that what they had gotten up to for the parts of their little party Feferi couldn’t remember? Feferi’s fish stuffed cheeks flushed with color as she swallowed down tail and fin. She could remember some of that happening. Remember getting mad enough that she wanted to pull down a wall or tear something living open. Remember Vriska petting her face and the rage draining slowly away. It had been more than a little nice. Unfortunately, it was probably also the reason Kanaya had been so silent.  
  
The thought gave Feferi pause. She knew for a fact that Kanaya didn’t even want Vriska that way-- practically everyone did! So what right did Kanaya have to outright ignore Feferi for _letting_ _Vriska_ console her? It wasn’t as if Vriska was the conciliatory party in her relationship with Kanaya, anyway. Feferi's cheeks remained fuchsia as she worked up a good sulk, bubbling in irritation. Being ignored was not something that happened to her … ever, as far as she could remember. She was the Empres to be, after all. Once she'd established her identity with people, they ... they didn't  _ignore_ her! Knowing that Kanaya hadn't been too busy for friendly chats or anything like that, and had instead been willfully and pointedly not giving Feferi attention for something she hadn't even known she'd done wrong... for something she _hadn't_ done wrong! It made her feel angry and helpless. She was talking to Vriska, though, who had happily calmed her down before. Why not see if she was willing to do it again?  
  
CC: )(ee )(ee, o)( wow.  
AG: Omg. I’m glad this is funny for one of us.  
AG: And 8y glad I mostly mean ir8.  
CC: I don’t t)(ink it’s funny! I just t)(ink you look loveely wit)( your )(and on my c)(eek. 38*  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]  
  
CC: 38o  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]  
  
AG: I j8st need t8 go feed my lus8s!!!!!!!!  
  
arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]  
  
CC: Liar!

While the excuse was terrible, the response was not. Maybe Vriska was into her? Feferi hoped so. She also found, as she swam back in the direction of her hive, that she hoped their conversation would get back to Kanaya.


	5. All According To Plan Or Something

Indulging Vriska when she was so shitty at apologizing was possibly her worst habit, but if she was perfectly honest with herself, she did want to go visit Vriska after all this time, and she was more than a little enthusiastic about the possibility of a sip of that blue. Vriska typically acted like she was kind of uncomfortable with the thought of sharing her blood, which Kanaya supposed she understood on some level, but they were palemates… didn’t that mean they were supposed to look out for each other?  
  
That would be the only reason she would go over, Kanaya told herself silently, with resolve. She was going to go over to give Vriska the opportunity to apologize and to make things right between them, because… she didn’t want their relationship to end. Clearly, Vriska didn’t either. Trolls were imperfect, and sometimes made mistakes. Mistakes for which they paid in blood.  
  
Haha, that was a good one. Kanaya thought fleetingly that she should say it to Feferi, but Feferi had taken up residence on her Shit List, so that wasn’t going to happen. Her skin began to glow of its own accord as she thought about Feferi with Vriska’s lips against her skin, and her expression darkened as her moirail finally stopped typing to herself and logged off of Trollian. When she noticed the glow, she made it stop immediately with a little irritated grunt. She was hungry, but it was daylight and she needed to rest.  
  
As she went through her before sleep rituals (clearing her hair and horns of wax, brushing her fangs, washing the makeup from her face), Kanaya wondered what fuchsia tasted like.

\--

  
The wrap dress that appeared on her body thanks to her wardrobifier while she was getting ready was shades of blue with a simple white patterning. It didn’t have any special significance or anything, but she loved a wrap dress, and she was going out today, so she didn’t bother changing. It was cinched with a pink belt that had a large buckle in the shape of her sign, and that also was in no way symbolic of anything. She did notice that the belt was maybe more magenta than she was okay with wearing right now, but again. Not changing. No significance.  
  
By the time she was at Vriska’s, she managed to school her features into something cold and calm before messaging the blueblood so that she knew Kanaya was waiting at her door. Knocking would be pointless at the door of a hive this huge unless Vriska was literally on the other side of it waiting for her to arrive.  
  
Given how quickly the door opened, she probably had been. Kanaya had to fight not to let herself smile at the thought.  
  
“Kanaya!” she greeted the other troll, drawing out the last vowel in a sing song and decidedly pleased sounding way. “Fancy meeting you here.”  
  
Kanaya blinked dully as Vriska leaned against the doorjamb, looking a mess. It wasn’t unusual for her, but it never failed to make Kanaya’s fingers twitch longingly for the comb she kept captchalogued.  
  
“You invited me, and knew very well that I was going to be here,” she answered, pursing her immaculately lipsticked lips in disapproval. She didn’t want any part of any shenanigans at the moment, which was unfortunate, as she was dealing with a Serket.  
  
Instead of giving her a proper answer, the grin on Vriska’s face withered a little as she turned to make her way back inside her hive, nodding for Kanaya to follow. She did, and was startled immediately by the state of the living area. It looked like a whirlwind had moved through the place, destroying things and knocking over what it couldn’t. There was a broken table between the plush lounging bench and the entertainment center.  
  
“Vriska, what is all this?” Kanaya asked, a sigh in her words.  
  
The other troll flipped her hair over her shoulder, which was a sure sign that whatever was about to come out of her mouth was going to be either bragging or lying. “I got mad, so I broke a bunch of shit. No big deal! Do you want a drink or something?”  
  
The light that came off of her skin, which Kanaya typically kept deactivated entirely brightened so that her skin began to glow almost imperceptibly. She carefully stepped over trash toppled near the entryway to go seat herself on the lounging bench, ankles crossed while she set her chin on her palm, jade eyes on the troll still standing. “What do you have to offer?”


	6. 8r8k stuff, gr8 plan.

In all honesty, Vriska hadn’t been angry for quite a while. Sure, she still worked on doomsday devices and was pretty positive that she’d get one operational before Conscription, but was she properly filled with rage? Not so much. It had probably been _sweeps_ since she’d wounded or killed anyone for a reason that didn’t relate to her mother, but… that didn’t mean she didn’t want and need her moirail. For all anyone knew, she was a countdown explosive! The state of her hive, though… that was maybe twelve percent the little party she and Feferi had taken part in together, and eighty-eight percent Vriska scurrying around her hive earlier that night making things as messy as possible without breaking anything too valuable to her. The busted table she’d put away to use for parts in some project in the future was pulled back out of one of her many, many storage blocks to be displayed in her living area.  
  
Some part of her had been convinced that when Kanaya saw this place, she was going to be so distracted by her urge to clean things up and fuss at Vriska that she was going to completely forget about that stupid picture, and any maybe-almost indiscretions that had occurred!  
  
It wasn’t just a good plan, it was a GR8 one.  
  
Which was why it was going so well.  
  
Kanaya had been over for quite a while now, and she hadn’t even brought up what she’d been so icily upset about even once! That might have had something to do with the way her eyes kept sliding down from Vriska’s face to her neck. It was also probably why Vriska was spilled across her lap on the lounging bench, letting her brush her hair with minimal argument.

"You should let me do this more often," Kanaya was telling her softly, as she tugged tangles out of a fist full of her hair with her comb. "Your hair looks much better when it's curling rather than knotted and--"

There was a sharp, painful yank, and Vriska went from content and only mildly uncomfortable to swearing violently. Kanaya seemed untouched by the words, and presented her shortly thereafter with a piece of what could either be a dried and withered bit of a dead game grub or a chunk of her table. She'd been sitting on the table when it broke, so the latter was more likely. She hoped. Vriska took the thing and then dropped it on the ground, which earned her a disapproving scowl from Kanaya, who continued talking. "--knotted and filled with debris."

"I guess you'd know, wouldn't you, fussyfangs?" There was another abrupt yank, and Vriska glared sullenly at Kanaya, who only let go of her hair for a moment to pet her face. It was nice.

"This is going to take all night..." Kanaya murmured, mostly to herself as she went back to work. After lingering at Vriska's throat again for a while as she combed, Kanaya's eyes rose to meet Vriska's, and she smiled.  "Unless you'd prefer to take a snack break? I know I could use one."

Vriska shifted on Kanaya's lap, and looked away, in the direction of the entertainment center. "Do you want to watch a movie? Because sitting around here doing a bunch of nothing is soooooooo boring. I'm about to fall asleep, to be honest."

Kanaya paused in her work and then continued momentarily. Her voice stayed soft as she asked, "Is that why you papped Feferi? Because you're bored with me?"

"Kanaya, no!" There was distress in Vriska's voice. So much for that gr8 plan. "No. I'm just. I'm just really stupid! It was fake! It was a fakey false thing that we posed for, just for the picture! It wasn't even supposed to go to you, it was for Eridan. Because Feferi broke up with him... we'd had some stuff to drink, and weren't thinking straight! It was an honest mistake..."

The comb slowed as it moved through Vriska's hair, and wow did she feel like shit.

"Then apologize to me," Kanaya said, and her voice was calm.

"I already said it was fake and stupid and a mistake!"

"I asked for an apology, Vriska."

Vriska cupped her own face in her hands, and sighed heavily into them before she looked back at Kanaya. She was lying, at least a little bit. It hadn't been all that fake, and there were some confused feelings there for Feferi, but... she'd never intended to act on them, and she was sorry. She was.

"I didn't mean to hurt you..." she started, but her palmhusk started buzzing where it was stuck in her pocket. It startled her enough that she swore, and Kanaya closed her hand over Vriska's once she fished it out of her pocket, eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at Vriska expectantly.

It continued to buzz, and Vriska bared her teeth briefly at Kanaya, who did it back before Vriska wrested it away to see who might be trolling her. Kanaya sighed sharply and disentangled her comb from Vriska's hair before shoving her way out from underneath the other troll and heading for the exit.

"Kanaya, wait! Where are you going?"

Vriska was ignored completely in favor of Kanaya pulling the door open, only to be faced by the toothy grin of one Feferi Peixes.


	7. SURPRIS--E!

"Kanaya, wait!" Vriska was calling as she scrambled to her feet to run after the jadeblood. She ran into the shorter troll's back when she came to an abrupt stop.

Feferi's open and friendly smile disappeared entirely to make way for a lip curling sneer of perfectly open and obvious contempt. Kanaya was not at all the person she was here to see, and was quite possibly one of the people she least wanted to speak to at the moment. Her chin tilted up and her eyes flickered judgmentally up and down Kanaya's body as the rainbow drinker's skin flared brightly.

Kanaya had been taken entirely off guard, and it was obvious in how much yellow was visible around her weird, glassy looking eyes. The glow dulled noticeably as Kanaya narrowed her eyes at Feferi, overtaken suddenly with how much she wanted to wipe that look off of her face. It was a very alien feeling, something that she wasn't sure she'd felt before, and it didn't go away when Feferi's expression switched back to smiling and friendly when her eyes lit upon Vriska. It intensified.

"Vriska!" Feferi cried, sounding perfectly pleased. She muscled past Kanaya, which sent her bumping less than gently into the door frame, and grabbed both of Vriska's hands in hers, tugging the tall troll down by them so that she could nuzzle their cheeks together in greeting. Really familiar, intimate greeting.

The jostled jadeblood sputtered in disbelief. Did that really just happen?

Sure did. Feferi smiled smugly at Kanaya over her shoulder for a brief second as Vriska pulled away, cheeks flushed with blue.

"Excuse me? What exactly are you doing?" Kanaya asked as she stood straight, clearly insulted and upset.

Feferi did not answer or even look in Kanaya's direction again. She clapped her hands together excitedly, and her fins wiggled where they peeked out from her hair as she looked up at Vriska. "I brought your new table with me! Ugh, it's _oceans_ away from your old one in quality, you can thank me whenever you like!"

She caught one of Vriska's hands in hers again and tugged her outside to show off the table that was sitting there a few feet from the door. Vriska shot Kanaya a quick smile that was meant to be apologetic, but mostly just came off as 'oh well' while she headed out and in the direction of the table to run her fingers over it. "I just meant to surface for a little whale to get it to you, so don't step on the transp--"

There was a crack and a fizzle, and Vriska disappeared from sight. "--ortalizer, because... it's... connected to the delivery one, and still on."

Feferi sighed and rolled her eyes. You'd think someone with blood as blue as Vriska's would know better than to step on a transportalizer just after a delivery. Not only was Vriska now making an impromptu visit to the furniture warehouse Feferi had bought the table from, she'd have to purchase something in order to get a drone to properly program her hive's location into the delivery transportalizer again. Good job.

"Where'd she go?" Kanaya asked, sounding startled. Feferi raised her eyebrows at the other troll, and went to pick up the table, which she tucked under her arm to the best of her ability. It was at least as long as she was tall and heavy besides, but the only thing that gave Feferi trouble was how unwieldy the table was. Getting it through the front door was a bit of a production.

"I asked you a question," Kanaya grated from behind her, and Feferi continued to ignore her as she got the table inside and toed the significantly shittier broken table out of the way in order to set the new one down in its place.

" _Feferi_?"

The princess's well kempt hair flared around her as if it were the fabric of a dress when she turned to glance in Kanaya's direction over her shoulder coolly. "Hmm? Were you saying something? I couldn't hear you. There must be sea water in my auriacles or somefin."  
  
"You can hear me very well. I asked you where Vriska was sent."  
  
"Probubbly to my hive, where she'll be flailing around with those useless air lungs of hers, if she isn't crushed by the pressure first! So to her death, I guess!" Feferi giggled at the thought, and once she noticed how wide Kanaya's eyes had gone, she doubled over. Her laughter was obnoxiously loud.  
  
"Oh my glub!" she whimpered as Kanaya advanced upon her. "Look at your stupid face! You're so gullible."  
  
Feferi wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye, and took a deep, amused breath as Kanaya's advance came to a halt. Kanaya's face darkened with both embarrassment and anger while her skin shone dangerously bright.  
  
"If you're quite finished, you can leave at any time," Kanaya hissed.  
  
Feferi laced her fingers together behind her back and angled her horns toward the other troll in a fairly blatant challenge, expression cheerful. "Whale... this isn't your hive, and you can't tell me what to do here. It's not like you're Vriska's lusus. You don't live here!"  
  
"I may not be Vriska's lusus, but I am her moirail," Kanaya started, but Feferi tittered.  
  
"You won't be for long."  
  
Kanaya's fangs were bared in Feferi's direction without a moment of hesitation, and Feferi was so dismissive of her as a threat that she actually sat down and made herself comfortable, even going so far as to find the controller to the entertainment system to switch it on.  
  
"I'll be her moirail until she decides she doesn't want us to be together anymore!"  
  
Feferi's horns were still subtly angled at Kanaya as she rested her head on her hand and kept her eyes directed at the system. She was fully intentionally making this fight be a thing that was happening. "Soooooooo, like I said. Not for long!"  
  
Slowly, Kanaya made her way to the lounging bench and lowered herself into a seated position. Where Feferi sat slouched comfortably, Kanaya's back was ramrod straight, and she was very visibly ruffled. "You don't know anything about our relationship."  
  
"I know you don't want to be in it! Everyone does. You're so redsick it's ridockulous! Betides, she'll make a much better moirail to me than you did to her. Since I don't want to pail her." Feferi began fingercombing all of that long dark hair with both hands, and it was incredibly distracting. Not from Kanaya's anger, just... in general.  
  
"You need to leave," Kanaya stated quietly. The door still stood open, awaiting Vriska's return.

"And you need to start acting like troll with any amount of sense in her head! Instead of acting like Eridan, but in a longer skirt."  
  
Kanaya gasped. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "At least Eridan knows how to put together an outfit."  
  
" _What?_ " Wow, okay. That had actually stung. Contrary to her actions tonight, she actually had a lot of respect for Kanaya in general, but as a fashionista especially. She looked up to Kanaya in terms of fashion-- thought she was stunning, and considered her word the word of god when it came to clothing and accessories used for fashion. She'd actually put a lot of thought into the very few articles of clothing she'd obtained for fashion rather than function, and Kanaya's words cut deep. Feferi puffed her cheeks up, as if it might make the color flooding them dissipate.  
  
"Fuck you!" she cried abruptly, fins flared.  
  
"Fuck yourself!" Kanaya shot back, bright eyes narrow. Did Feferi think that was in any way threatening? It was almost endearing, but Kanaya still wanted to grab Feferi by the hair and knock her teeth down her throat. She whipped her head in Feferi's direction to look at her directly. "If telling you that your outfit is ugly is all it takes to nonplus you, I'm sure you're going to be a _credit_ to the Empire."

Feferi turned in her seat to face Kanaya as well, but instead of answering her, she backhanded the other troll hard enough that she ended up sprawled across that brand new table. Kanaya was so confused by the sting of her cheek, the ringing in her ear, and her sudden change of location that it took her a long moment to even locate Feferi again with her eyes. Once she had, she was upon the shorter troll with a shrieky growl before she could stop to think about what she was doing. She struck Feferi twice in quick succession, and then grabbed her wrists to keep her from retaliating, and a dazed Feferi blinked up at her.  
  
"You don't need a moirail! You're just afraid to be diamondless. You're going to enter adulthood proper very soon. _Act like it_."  
  
Feferi's pupils were huge, and her breath was short as she stared up at Kanaya's snarling face. Seeing Kanaya this way was kind of amazing.  
  
"Eat my _conch_ ," Feferi hissed, and headbutted her. Kanaya cursed loudly and let go of Feferi's wrists to cover her face with both hands. Feferi pushed her, harder than she really intended to and sent the other troll toppling backward over the table, which toppled the table and broke one of its legs as well. "You have no right to talk to me about acting like an adult! You've been quadranted to Vriska for how long? _You aren't even pale for her!_ You're the one who needs to grow up!"

She was mostly talking to Kanaya's flats, since her legs were the only things peeking over the edge of the table. Shortly, though, both trolls were standing and facing each other from opposite sides of that table, trying to get their breath under control. If the blood smeared across her cheek and seeping down over her lips was any indication, Kanaya's nose might have been broken, and there was a bruise developing around one of Feferi's eyes already. Kanaya was biting back angry tears, and Feferi was trembling for a similar reason.

"I'm of the opinion..." Kanaya began, wiping the the blood from her lips with the back of her hand. Her face was burning and her skin was aglow, "that you might benefit from a kismesis who understood what a wiggler you are."

"I'm of the opinion," Feferi repeated in a wigglerish voice, before continuing in her own, "that you're jetsam waiting to hapfin on Vriska's paleship. That you're a rainbowsucker, and that you're loathsome." She'd meant rainbowsucker in a figurative way, but didn't want to tack on that addendum and ruin her moment.

The two stared at each other for a long, long moment. The only sound was the dialog of an advertisement playing on the screen of the entertainment system.

Kanaya rubbed at her nose again. "So does this mean..."

Feferi growled in frustration and covered her face with both hands, fins wiggling. "You don't _ask_ , you dweeb! You just do what feels right!"

"It would feel right to break your facetious nose."

"Like I broke yours?"

And that was all it took to get Kanaya clambering over the second broken table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kicking around the idea of adding more...


End file.
